Action learning

This is followed by guidance on how you might think through your own personal approach to managing effectively. Some principles are culled from action learning as a way of setting in motion an experience of managing effectively for yourself. 

The approach to learning from experience taken in this book owes much to the ideas of action learning (Revans, 1971, 1983 McGill and Beatie, 1992 Pedler, 1991). It dispenses, though, with many of the procedures one might expect to find on many orthodox action-learning programmes. 

Revans also held, and action learning practitioners still largely follow this protocol, that experiential Q learning should normally precede P learning. In that way P learning is given relevance, is likely to be pursued more assiduously, and be more lastingly absorbed. 

TTiis kind of deliberate development most typically occurs when a manager is on a course where some kind of action-research or action-learning project is a requirement. But it could of course be engineered quite independently of any formal course. 

The standard action learning principle for achieving this is that one should tackle an unfamiliar problem or task in an unfamiliar setting, what Revans described as maximum stretch . 

Revans prescription for maximum stretch, although persuasive, has been more honoured in the breach than the observance. Many action-learning programmes are run In which the project is drawn from the programme participant s own organization and very often from his or her own job. 

Action learning without a support group or set would probably be regarded by most practitioners as falling outside the bounds of true action learning. This means that many... 

One of the functions served by action-learning sets or support groups is to help managers to atteiln their outcomes despite adversity, the sources of which can be internal to the person as well as external. You may well find you need to talk to a friend to help you discern the patterns which should result from the exercise in Box 8.5. What you might do about them will often be resolved quite naturally through your awareness of how you are sabotaging yourself by what you think and do. How to let go of more persistent uncon-structive beliefs and behaviours will be discussed in Chapter 10. 

The task that confronts you if you are serious about meiklng use of this book for self-development is getting honest and accurate feedback on your performance to aid you in your self-reflections. My experience of action-learning sets is that, valuable as these are, they do not give the feedback that can only come from someone who sees you in operation at work. On the other hand, an effective set, in that it will get you to address personal obstacles to achievement at work, may Indirectly lead to the kind of observational feedback that you need. 

Schon s notion of reflectlon-in-action was described in Chapter 5 (see Box 5.3). You try something. It does not work. You try something else. It works. You have learned. In Schon s model of reflection-in-action, learning experiences start with a routine response, which, when it does network, precipitates a surprise . In the case of managers pursuing a developmental project, the whole point has been that you should not have been trying out routinized responses. 

It may sound fanciful, but International Management Centres, through its action-learning programmes is seriously endeavouring to create this kind of ethos in its client companies. 

McGill, I. and Beaty, L. (1992). Action Learning A Practitioner s Guide. Kogan Page. 

There are of course many books already on different aspects of management development, for example on selfmanagement, creativity, intuition, leadership, action learning. But there is to my knowledge no book which brings together personal development and practical action in the way that is done here. 

Managers on action learning programmes, who could find in this book some new approaches to interpreting and learning from their experience ... 

Harvey, W. B, (2004). Deans as diversity leaders Modifying attitudes by taking bold actions—Learning lessons and changing cultures. In E, W. Hale, Jr. (Ed.), What makes racial diversity work in higher education Academic leaders present successful policies and strategies (pp. 293-306). Sterling, VA Stylus. 

Action research may be found under other names, like participatory research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning, and contextual action research. 

The word radical means root and the root of health care is a trusting patient-provider relationship. Radical Health is designed to teach dietitians how to see and hear their patients clearly without interpretations, explanations, rationalizations, and manipulation of their feelings or actions. Learning to become aware of judgments, age-old hurts, childhood angers, and reactive states enables clinicians to actively acknowledge these reactions and allow them to... 

Concept to Action Learning Team-Based Solutions from High-Reliability Organizations... 

RAVENS R w (1980) Action learning New techniques for management. London Blond Briggs, Ltd. 

Kember, D. 2000. Action learning and action research. Improving the quality of teaching and learning. Kogan Page. 

Storseth, F, Tinmannsvik, R.K. 2013. The critical re-action learning from accidents, Safety Science, 50 (10), 1977-1982. 

Movie editing systems support personal creations and offer the opportunity for one to reflect on real world experiences. Authorship is enhanced if the assembly of the movie is made out of elements in a story that can be explored and combined in real time. ""Children build, make or manipulate objects or artifacts and in doing so are confronted with the results of their actions, learning as they go [26], In Moving Pictures, the children create the content of their stories that can be used for performance and editing, and they also learn the process of making a movie as they go . 

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